I am an aeronautical engineering student and I'm struggling about which macbook I should buy. The main programs I use now are Pro Engineer (Creo 2.0) and Matlab. I may be using Solid Works in the future. I travel... let's say a lot and 13 inch is the only option I have. Logically my first thoughts were on the MBA (1.8GHz i5, 8G RAM, 256 SSD), but then I thought the CPU won't be powerful enough for a lot of CAD working, and the 2.0GHz i7 doesn't seem to make a great difference. Hence, I am strongly considering the MBP 2.9GHz i7, 8 RAM, 750 HD (and it's £170 cheaper than the MBA with the i7). What do you think about it? Is the MBA powerful enough to run all these programs smoothly or I should stick to the MPB (with grater performance and value)?

PD: I will use a boot camp rather than Parallels. I'm thinking of keeping the laptop for about 3-4 years.

I have a 2012 11'' i5/8/128 ... i am in a Computer Graphics Master Program and till now i have worked on Matlab and OpenGL with good and fast results. But i believe that having to do hard work and looking in a 3-4 years future and the work that you will do then , i think you should take the MBPro ... the air i think wins on the SSD speed which is incredibly high and "helps" the applications run fast. But as i can see you want clear power and also in 3-4 years from now ... so MBPro my vote ...